Thursday, 28 February 2013

Wind power has many ama ing applications. These include offsetting carbon emissions, providing wind turbine jobs, appearing in adverts for energy companies to show how eco-friendly they are, and giving angry people something to complain about in local newspapers. You might not think that the uses of wind energy go much further than that. After all, while wind farms might be a great idea, obviously there are a limited number of things you can stick a windmill on top of, right? Well, you might think that, but you’d be tragically wrong. The wind is being used to power all sorts of weird things, such as:

Wind Energy Phone Chargers

In this day and age if you’re away from your Facebook page for than an hour or more you start hyperventilating and getting heart palpitations. Google has just released special glasses so that even as you’re walking around you’re getting the Internet rammed right into your eyes. Even people who are willing to give up sleeping in a real bed, under an actual ceiling, with proper toilets for some reason can’t cope with the idea of being unable to tweet about it.

Wednesday, 27 February 2013

Today, every business has to deal with the fact that as electricity consumption is on the rise, and its cost can no longer be ignored as just a little overhead. The cost of half hourly energy is becoming a significant factor when it comes to investment in the business, and therefore, just like any other factor, this needs to be optimised as well. Optimising your costs could actually be two-fold here – getting a better deal from a supplier, and having your consumption measured more accurately so that you’re paying only for what you use. It’s the latter where half hourly electricity suppliers can provide a lot of value. For the former, we’re always here with our expert yet completely free services.

A team of researchers at Ohio State University in the US claim to have discovered a new method of taking the energy from coal without actually burning it. The new method – called coal-direct chemical looping – has been pioneered by Professor Liang-Shih Fan and his team at Ohio State University, and is claimed to essentially remove the danger from greenhouse gasses when using coal for energy. Whilst any other power plant that burns coal does so traditionally – by burning the coal to create steam to turn turbines – Professor Fan’s coal-direct chemical looping chemically combusts the coal.

Over the last three months wind farms produced more electricity than any other power source in Spain for the first time ever, an industry group has said.

The country delivered over six terawatt hours of electricity from wind farms during January, according to data from grid operator Red Electrica de Espana, the Spanish Wind Energy Association said in a statement.

“Since November 1, wind has been the top technology in the electrical system,” the group said in a blog posting. “The last time any technology exceeded six terawatt-hours of monthly generation was in 2010, when it was combined-cycle gas turbines.”

The performance means wind energy exceeded output from both nuclear and coal-fired power stations and represents more than a quarter of Spain’s total power generation.

Spain has been looking to boost its wind power capacity as part of the government’s efforts to cut carbon emissions.

Energy consultants, both I&C and SMEs, do “great work” with end customers according to npower, which says it’s open to do business with them.The headline sponsor of The Energy

Live Consultancy Awards TELCA, npower said it wants to promote and support the good work that TPIs and brokers are doing within the energy industry and that the awards will allow it to do just that.Chris Billing pictured, Head of Indirect Sales said: “It’s very important. There’s lots of good stuff happening – whether that’s for customer service, whether that’s innovation, whether that’s creating trust. We really want to be involved with that and to promote it.“The second point is in terms of integrity and transparency within the marketplace, subject of much debate, but very much npower wants to be behind that and we actually want to make sure that we’re enforcing that sort of behaviour within the industry and actually the awards allow us to do that by the entry criteria that we have.”

With our SESPCO solution the savings are shared from the first quarter onwards with the client, as apposed to the client normally under the normal ESCO model not receiving any energy saving benefits until the investment fund has recouped the capital and interest on any project.

This obviously extends the pay back period for the funder’s but provides the client with immediate visibility of savings to the bottom line.

To date project costs are typically between £250k and £750k of capital expenditure, which although are still significant, this is below the threshold of more traditional schemes operated by some suppliers. This solution is available for any private or public sector organisations with a combined heating and electricity spend greater than £50k.

Tuesday, 26 February 2013

Northampton Borough Council has been ranked 24 out of 2,097 organisations in the UK for the work it has done to successfully reduce its carbon emissions.

The 2011/12 performance league table has been published today by the Environment Agency which has been logging the carbon emissions of all large non energy intensive organisations in the UK’s public and private sectors. An organisation’s position in the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme league table reflects its actual performance in reducing carbon emissions and its measurable commitment to reducing emissions going forward.

Since pledging to cut its carbon emissions at the end of 2009 Northampton Borough Council has worked hard to reduce its carbon footprint. Over the past three years projects have included relocating staff into two main office buildings, insulating offices and installing state of the art LED lighting in car parks.

By the end of 2012 the council had managed to cut its carbon emissions by 38 per cent and was one of only a few local authorities in the country to be awarded the Carbon Trust Standard for a second time. The standard is awarded by the Carbon Trust to organisations that have shown real, measurable reductions and a clear commitment to reducing energy year on year.

In addition to reducing its own carbon emissions, the council has improved the energy efficiency of its housing stock and been actively promoting a number of energy saving schemes to local businesses and households to help them save energy and money on fuel bills.

Bam Group, a 3-D marketing firm, has ranked no. 1 in the UK’s Carbon Reduction Commitment Performance League Table (PTL), with data appearing to show that it cut emissions 65 percent in one year. Motorola, Skanska, Manchester City Council and bank Bradford & Bingley round out the top five on the list.

After two years in first place, soccer club Manchester United has fallen to 488th place on the 2011/12 table, which includes 2,097 companies and organizations.

But Bam climate change manager Jesse Putzel called the results misleading, telling BuinessGreen that the company’s apparent deep GHG reduction was mostly due to a requirement that companies report emissions from more than 29 fuels. Without this requirement, Bam’s emissions reduction would stand at 17 percent.

The PLT ranks participants in the Carbon Reduction Commitment program, under which companies of a certain size have to purchase allowances for every ton of CO2 they emit. Unlike the EU cap and trade scheme, the CRC covers non-carbon-intensive sectors.

The UK Environment Agency compiles the list using three weighted metrics: an absolute metric, growth metric and early action metric, which includes companies’ carbon emissions before the CRC program started.

Scottish Water Ltd., the fourth- biggest U.K. water company, is planning the largest improvement in Glasgow’s wastewater infrastructure in at least a century.

The publicly owned utility said the 250 million-pound ($379 million) works program intends to improve the water and environmental conditions of the River Clyde and help control sewer flooding from heavier rainfall amid climate change.

Network upgrades and water-system works will include safety valves on the River Clyde and tributaries such as the River Kelvin and White Cart Water to control wastewater during storms, as well as improvements in southwestern Glasgow to remove excess surface water from known “pinchpoints.”

The growing demand for commercial biomass boilers isn’t surprising when you look at the energy savings that can be achieved by using one, compared to traditional commercial boilers. The actual savings that can be achieved from installing a commercial biomass boiler will vary and is dependant on the existing type of fuel used. The biggest savings come from transferring from oil to biomass, where typically oil was historically the only choice for building was off grid and typical savings can be as high as 48%. For electricity boilers this drops down to 30% savings and 20% savings for gas boilers.

Commercial Biomass boilers are more energy efficient than oil, gas and electricity and are operated with the use of wood chips or pellets. Consideration is needed for the storage facilities required for a biomass boiler as the wood chips or pellets need to be kept dry. The quality of wood chip can vary and generally will take up more space than using pellets and there are also higher maintenance costs associated with wood chips.

We would recommend the use of a boiler that uses wood pellet over wood chip as over the life of the boiler this is the most cost effective route. A commercial biomass boiler can be up to 50% more energy efficient than a traditional gas boiler.

People are fascinated by organized crime. If that weren’t true, there wouldn’t be so many movies, TV shows and books about it. But in most mainstream portrayals, the mob plies its trade in traditional ways: controlling gambling, prostitution, protection, extortion or loan-sharking.

Recent developments prove that the mafia has evolved and infiltrated industries that don’t bring Al Capone to mind. Case in point: Italian law enforcement has recently uncovered deep links between the Cosa Nostra and wind and solar power companies, seizing around 30 percent of the wind farms built in Sicily and freezing more than $2 billion in various assets. A dozen crime bosses have been carted off in handcuffs, along with corrupt officials and business people. But is that the end of the story?

It’s doubtful. This recent sting operation is similar to a 2010 police operation that involved the seizing of over 40 companies, hundreds of parcels of land, buildings, factories, bank accounts, stocks, cars and yachts from Sicilian businessman Vito Nicastri, 54, also known as “Lord of the Wind” because of his investments in alternative energy businesses, mostly wind farms and solar panel factories. History often repeats itself, so don’t be surprised if a similar bust takes place in a few years.

So what draws the Mafia to renewable energy? Is the mob really going green?

Maybe, but it’s more likely that certain individuals are looking for the same kind of green they’ve always sought — the green of dollar bills.

In Brussels last week 22.02.13, an energy council met to discuss land-use changes for biofuels. The intent was to complete an internal EU energy market by 2014. The EU itself

has committed to an energy roadmap that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 80-95 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.Yet countries within the EU still have wildly varying energy policies, particularly when it comes to nuclear energy.Germany is phasing out nuclear energy entirely. Thirteen other EU countries, however, continue to operate nuclear reactors. Following the Fukushima disaster, Spain and Switzerland banned the construction of any new reactors, while France not only runs a number of reactors in its own country, but operates eight out of nine reactors in the UK through Electricité de France EDF.

Residents are being urged to beat the energy price rises by joining the Collective Energy Switching campaign which launches today, giving people a better deal on their household energy bills.

With energy bills continually on the rise, and more people suffering fuel poverty, the Collective Energy Switching campaign aims to help tackle the problem.

Households are being urged to sign up, for free, before April 8th, and the more people who do, the better deal they will receive. Cheshire East is hoping to smash its target of getting 7,000 households to sign up.

Cheshire East Council will hold an online auction on April 9th, and the energy companies who make the lowest bid will win your custom. People are not obliged to commit at this stage.

Councillor Jamie Macrae, Cabinet member in charge of prosperity and economic regeneration, said: “This campaign is open to everyone and the more people we get to sign up, the bigger buying power we will have to drive down energy bills.

“Cheshire East Council is committed to helping people who are finding it increasingly hard to heat their homes during the harsh winters.

Manchester United has plummeted from first place in the UK’s Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) league table to 488th place, after Bam Group, Motorola, and Skanska seized the top spots in the controversial ranking of almost 3,000 organisations.

The Environment Agency today published the long-awaited final edition of the CRC Performance League Table (PLT), which ranks organisations based on their energy efficiency performance for 2011/12.

Germany saw increased emissions in greenhouse gases last year due to more coal and gas usage while the country seeks to develop its renewable energy sources, officials said Monday.

Germany, which has committed to phase out nuclear power, emitted the equivalent of around 931 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2012, or 14 million tonnes more than a year earlier, the federal environment agency said.

“Greenhouse gas emissions in Germany increased slightly in 2012 by 1.6 percent,” it said in a written statement.

The growing demand for commercial biomass boilers isn’t surprising when you look at the energy savings that can be achieved by using one, compared to traditional commercial boilers. The actual savings that can be achieved from installing a commercial biomass boiler will vary and is dependant on the existing type of fuel used.

The biggest savings come from transferring from oil to biomass, where typically oil was historically the only choice for building was off grid and typical savings can be as high as 48%. For electricity boilers this drops down to 30% savings and 20% savings for gas boilers.

Commercial Biomass boilers are more energy efficient than oil, gas and electricity and are operated with the use of wood chips or pellets. Consideration is needed for the storage facilities required for a biomass boiler as the wood chips or pellets need to be kept dry. The quality of wood chip can vary and generally will take up more space than using pellets and there are also higher maintenance costs associated with wood chips.

We would recommend the use of a boiler that uses wood pellet over wood chip as over the life of the boiler this is the most cost effective route. A commercial biomass boiler can be up to 50% more energy efficient than a traditional gas boiler.

We are absolutely thrilled to announce that Catalyst has been shortlisted in the ‘SME Consultancy of the Year’ at the Energy Live Consultancy Awards. This is set to be the largest awards programme in the UK, created to reward the best companies in the UK energy sector. Recognised by consumers and energy professionals throughout the UK, The Energy Live Consultancy Awards are widely referred to as the Oscars of the energy industry and are easily the most recognisable of all energy industry accolades.

Britain’s offshore oil and gas sector will invest a record £13 billion $19.6 billion, 14.8 billion euros in 2013, boosted by the impact of taxation changes in the previous year, an industry survey showed Monday.Overall investment is expected to surge by 14 percent this year, compared with £11.4 billion in 2012, industry body Oil & Gas UK said in a statement detailing its latest activity survey. Last year’s figure had already been a 30-year high.”Here is some really good news for the UK,” said Oil & Gas UK chief executive Malcolm Webb.”After two disappointing years brought about by tax uncertainty and consequent low investment, the UK continental shelf UKCS is now benefitting from record investment in new developments and in existing assets and infrastructure, the strongest for more than three decades.”He added that last year’s changes in the taxation regime, which were aimed at promoting the development of a range of difficult energy projects, had prompted many companies to reassess their plans and sparked a new wave of investment.Oil & Gas UK, which represents more than 300 firms, added that output was forecast to surge over the next three to four years thanks to the recent surge in investment.

Monday, 25 February 2013

British prompt gas prices rose on Monday morning as cold weather lifted demand and left the system undersupplied, while low storage inventories made the system more vulnerable to price swings.

Tuesday gas was up 2.70 pence to 72.90 pence per therm at 1030 GMT largely because the system was undersupplied by 6 million cubic metres/day (mcm) while cold weather forecast for this week kept demand expectations high.

“People are rightly worried about the weather…if the cold continues past next week in a significant way then medium-range storage is not going to be there to fill the gap,” a UK gas trader said.

British prompt gas prices rose on Monday morning as cold weather lifted demand and left the system undersupplied, while low storage inventories made the system more vulnerable to price swings. Tuesday gas was up 2.70 pence to 72.90 pence per therm at 1030 GMT largely because the system was undersupplied by 6 million cubic metres/day (mcm) while cold weather forecast for this week kept demand expectations high. "People are rightly worried about the weather...if the cold continues past next week in a significant way then medium-range storage is not going to be there to fill the gap," a UK gas trader said. Low inventories at mid-range storage sites, high demand and supply issues in Norway briefly pushed within-day gas prices to one-year highs on Friday. Gas for immediate delivery rose 1 pence to 75 pence on Monday. Withdrawals from storage fell to 75 mcm from 109 mcm on Friday as stockpiles at Rough, Britain's biggest such facility, and other mid-range sites fell below their levels at this time last year. Dwindling stocks are forcing operators to replenish some sites, while others are pumping out gas to fetch high prices. "Nominations suggest net storage withdrawals of 43 mcm today with Rough and Holford withdrawing, while Aldbrough is nominating 13 mcm of injections," analysts at Thomson Reuters Point Carbon said.

Energy prices are set to soar in the UK and stay at high levels for years to come according to the head of the energy regulator Ofgem.

The average duel fuel bill in the UK is already £1,420 a year, up 19 per cent since 2009. But Ofgem warns that the UK’s over reliance on gas as coal, oil-fired and nuclear power stations are decommissioned, will push prices higher still.

Alistair Buchanan, chief executive of the regulator, says that falls in the UK’s power production capacity are likely to lead to the importation of more gas at a time when demand is growing across the globe.

He said that Britain would be “very tight” on power station capacity in three to five years’ time. “We’re going to have to go shopping in world markets at a time when they will be very tight [on capacity] themselves.

“There isn’t a single person or people to blame. In my view it was a single event – the financial crisis. Before the financial crisis the government had backed a visionary approach to energy on wind, water and nuclear… then came the financial tsunami.”

The impact of the “financial tsunami” is not limited to energy prices: many other aspects of household finance have been affected. In the last few years young families have faced soaring food costs, extortionate childcare fees, rising petrol and diesel prices, and in many cases the axing of child benefit.

Pressure is mounting on Ofgem to introduce greater protection for small businesses in the energy market.

The regulator last week announced a series of measures to increase protection for consumers, following a warning that households faced steep increases in their bills in the coming year.

The changes will see suppliers limited to offering no more than four energy tariffs. They will also have to move customers who are on poor value tariffs automatically to their cheapest deals.

Ofgem, headed by Alistair Buchanan, also said final proposals aimed at providing further protection for small and medium-sized firms would be published before Easter.

Yet with experts warning that it could be many months before any proposals are implemented, the pressure is increasing on Ofgem to speed up the process of change to help struggling small firms.

Changes that business groups are calling for include a ban on rollover contracts, used by suppliers to move firms on to costly deals if they fail to cancel in time, and for suppliers to provide regular and detailed information on contract terms and the cancellation period.

January saw longer-term contracts dip slightly, but the day-ahead contracts saw notable gains on the back of cold weather. Annual power and gas prices have been trading at similar levels to October 2012 after being driven lower by record low coal and carbon prices in January. Coal prices dropped notably as global oversupply continued; annual coal prices declined 3.7% to a monthly average of $92.0/t. Carbon prices collapsed after an allowance auction failed to reach the reserve price. Annual carbon dropped 10% to a monthly average of €5.9/t. In contrast, month-ahead Brent crude increased 2% to a monthly average of $111.5/bl on renewed economic optimism and instability in North Africa.

British prompt gas prices rose on Monday morning as cold weather lifted demand and left the system undersupplied, while low storage inventories made the system more vulnerable to price swings.

Tuesday gas was up 2.70 pence to 72.90 pence per therm at 1030 GMT largely because the system was undersupplied by 6 million cubic metres/day (mcm) while cold weather forecast for this week kept demand expectations high.

“People are rightly worried about the weather…if the cold continues past next week in a significant way then medium-range storage is not going to be there to fill the gap,” a UK gas trader said.

On Thursday, the people of Eastleigh go to the polls for a crucial by-election. Many residents will rightly vote on local issues and the strength of the individual candidates. But they will also be voting for a party and, contrary to the cynical view that all politicians think alike, there are significant differences between the three main parties. One of the most critical disagreements is over Britain’s energy policy, and the Hampshire constituency is an appropriate place to discuss it.

Chris Huhne, Eastleigh’s former MP and the energy and climate change secretary until 2012, was an outspoken champion of green-energy production. Although his view remains fashionable, it is also wrong. The Lib Dems, and Labour, refuse to acknowledge the facts. Only the Conservatives are moving in the right direction.

This issue needs to be tackled: only last week, Alistair Buchanan, the chief executive of the regulator Ofgem, warned that falls in the UK’s power production are likely to lead to more energy imports and price rises for consumers. Already, power station closures are predicted to cause a 10 per cent fall in output in April alone.

Implicit in Mr Buchanan’s remarks is that the Coalition is not moving fast enough to create new sources of power as old ones are decommissioned. The Government’s Energy Bill remains just that – a Bill, while plans to build more nuclear power are still just plans. Investors are unwilling to spend huge sums of money in a country where they can’t predict what the future of energy policy will be. Practical issues that prevent investment in nuclear are also not being addressed quickly enough; earlier this month, Centrica abandoned plans for building new reactors in the UK because of rising costs and construction delays.

Readers of this column might have been astonished by the media response last week to that warning by Alistair Buchanan, retiring head of the energy regulator Ofgem, that next month we will see the closure of five major coal-fired power stations that between them contribute nearly a sixth of the UK’s average electricity needs.

Over the next few years, Mr Buchanan feared, we will be dangerously close to not having enough power in the grid to keep Britain’s lights on.

I have been trying to explain this here for so long that my readers may be weary of it. It was back in 2006 that I first reported on why, within a decade or so, we might see Britain’s lights going out. In fact, as I set out in my book, The Real Global Warming Disaster, in 2009, the writing was already on the wall in the government’s energy White Paper of 2003. Tony Blair signed us up to an energy policy centred on building thousands of windmills, already fully aware that we would be losing many of our coal-fired power stations due to an EU anti-pollution directive, and that we were unlikely to build any new nuclear power stations to replace those that by now would be nearing the end of their life.

This made a nonsense of Mr Buchanan’s claim in a vacuous interview with Evan Davis, on Tuesday’s Today programme on Radio 4, that everything was fine with Britain’s “visionary” energy policy until we were hit by that “financial tsunami” in 2008. This prompted Mr Davis to comment, “So we can blame the bankers for it, as we normally do”. (Nine months earlier I had written a column headed, “When the lights go out, you’ll know who to blame” – it wasn’t the bankers.)

ONE million homes narrowly escaped a power cut last month as bitterly cold weather placed a massive strain on Britain’s creaking electricity network.

Shutdown was only avoided because a gas-fired station due to close by next winter came to the rescue. Last night experts warned that life-threatening blackouts are increasingly likely as “we head downhill – fast”.

Alistair Buchanan, the outgoing head of energy regulator Ofgem said: “On Wednesday, January 16, due to unplanned outages and cold weather, National Grid had to find power to supply roughly a million homes to keep the lights on.

“Fawley, an oil-fired plant in Hampshire, was one of the power stations that responded. Next winter Fawley will not be there.”

And as a spell of bitter cold once more hits the UK, the near switch-off which came so perilously close on that freezing afternoon, underscores the magnitude of the energy crisis.

The owner of British Gas faces a consumer backlash amid reports it is about to announce a 15 per cent increase in profits, taking the figure to some £2.8billion.

Figures to be announced by Centrica on Wednesday point to a profits bonanza on the back of spiralling bills for struggling customers.

The profits at British Gas, which put up prices by six per cent in the teeth of the winter chill, are predicted to be up by some 10 per cent to around £580million for 2012.

The company is also under fire over payments to the departing British Gas boss, Phil Bentley, who is predicted to walk away with a package of pay, shares and a pension pot together worth more than £10million.

Centrica has tried to pre-empt the furore by publishing a study boasting about its beneficial effects on the wider UK economy in terms of employment, investment and the tax it pays.

Belfast Harbour has handed over its new £50 million offshore wind terminal to DONG Energy and ScottishPower Renewables in a move which will create up to 300 jobs in trades such as welding, electrics and engineering. The official hand-over was attended by Northern Ireland’s First and deputy First Ministers, Peter Robinson MLA and Martin McGuinness MLA alongside Len O’Hagan, Belfast Harbour’s Chairman and Brent Cheshire, DONG Energy’s UK Country Chairman.

The harbour will initially be used to support the development of the West of Duddon Sands windfarm in the Irish Sea which is a joint venture between Scottish Power Renewables and DONG Energy. Work on this windfarm has already started and the harbour has already received its first shipment of components with the expectation that the first turbines will leave Belfast sometime this summer for erection at the site.

“Delivering this immense project on time and on budget has been a major achievement” said Len O’Hagan. “This is a historic development for Belfast which has the potential to usher in a major new industry for Northern Ireland – a development which is all the more poignant given that this is the Harbour’s 400th anniversary year. Over the years the Harbour has helped bring other industries to Belfast such as shipbuilding and aerospace by investing heavily in infrastructure and land reclamation. This is a continuation of that strategy and a demonstration of our long-term commitment to enhance the local economy.”

The new terminal covers 5- acres and is located on the County Down side of the port. It is the largest single investment in the harbours 400-year history and was built by local construction company Farrans. The project took 15 months, 750,000 man hours, one million tonnes of stone and 30,000 tonnes of concrete to complete. It is large enough to accommodate 30 football pitches and includes a 480 metre deep-water quayside. Up to three vessels will be able to berth simultaneously with access available around the clock.

ONE million homes narrowly escaped a power cut last month as bitterly cold weather placed a massive strain on Britain’s creaking electricity network. Shutdown was only avoided because a gas-fired station due to close by next winter came to the rescue. Last night experts warned that life-threatening blackouts are increasingly likely as “we head downhill – fast”. Fawley is one of a number of coal and oil power stations being forced into retirement to comply with EU environmental targets.

We are facing disaster on energy prices. The dynamic has changed, but the thinking hasn’t. What worries me most is that the average household energy bill will be £1,400 by end of the year; £1,500 is a cliff edge at which most people say they’ll switch off the heating entirely.——Ann Robinson, consumer champion at uSwitch, Sunday Express, 24 February 2013

Scotland’s wealthiest private landowners are on course to earn around £1 billion in rental fees from wind farm companies, according to a book published yesterday by a senior Tory politician. Struan Stevenson, a Conservative MEP, estimated the sum will be paid over the next eight years to at least a dozen landowners willing to allow turbines on their estates and farms. –-Simon Johnson, The Sunday Telegraph, 24 February 2013

Sunday, 24 February 2013

One-hundred percent green energy for the European Union is realistic by the middle of the century provided the bloc signs up to ambitious energy policy goals for 2030, conservation body WWF said in a report on Thursday.

Debate has begun in Brussels on targets for 2030 to replace the existing set of 2020 goals, which are to cut carbon emissions by 20 percent from 1990 levels, improve energy savings by 20 percent compared with projected use, and increase the share of renewables in the energy mix to 20 percent.

Targets for 2030 should include energy savings of at least 38 percent compared with business as usual, obtaining 40 percent of fuel from green sources and cutting carbon emissions by 50 percent, the WWF report says.

“Our report clearly shows that the EU has untapped potential for cutting energy use, taking full advantage of renewable sources that could deliver cheaper and more secure energy and ensuring that a 100 percent renewable system by 2050 remains within reach,” Jason Anderson, head of climate and energy at WWF European Policy Office, said.

A final attempt to simplify the much-criticised Carbon Reduction Commitment CRC, was announced in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement towards the end of 2012. Amongst a variety of reforms is the withdrawal of all state-funded schools in England from the Scheme. Jurjen de Greeve, Direct Sales Manager at IMServ Europe, the UK’s largest independent energy management provider, believes this is a step backward and risks undoing the progress that has been made so far as a result of the Carbon Reduction Commitment.Applicable to all organisations using more than 6,000MWh per year of electricity, the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme formerly known as the Carbon Reduction Commitment is a mandatory carbon emissions scheme. Introduced in April 2010, the Scheme targets emissions from large public and private sector organisations, with the aim of driving emissions reductions and incentivising the uptake of energy efficiencies.Along with the withdrawal of state-funded schools in England, other changes to the Scheme include:

Alistair Buchanan, Ofgem chief executive, claimed that consumers, as well as businesses, should prepare for higher prices at a time when an increasing number of older people are being plunged into fuel poverty.

He warned that the British energy market would become tighter as a result of power plants closing, foreign gas supplies shrinking and increasing demand.

‘We have to face the likelihood that avoiding power shortages will also carry a price,’ Mr Buchanan said, writing in the Daily Telegraph.

‘If you can imagine a ride on a rollercoaster at a fairground, then this winter we are at the top of the circuit and we head downhill – fast.’

Ofgem predicts that within three years the reserve margin of generation will fall dramatically from below 14% to below 5%.

As is stands, about 10% of current generation stock is set to go next month due to coal and oil-fired power stations closing earlier than expected to meet environmental targets.

Elsewhere, world demand for gas is poised to tighten as expected gas supplies from the Russian Shtokman field are cancelled, China’s demand rises by 20% annually and Asian gas shoots up in price to 60% more than UK supplies.

During President Obama’s recent state of the union address, I was particularly drawn to one specific comment he made. The statement by the president I’m referring to was, “A once-shuttered warehouse is now a state-of-the art lab where new workers are mastering the 3D printing that has the potential to revolutionise the way we make almost everything.” 3D printing has been increasingly used to produce jewellery, dental work, prototyping and even creating human organs. However, as an energy strategist, I’m most excited about the potential for 3D printing to revolutionise solar panel and photovoltaic (PV) cell manufacturing.

For starters, for those not familiar with 3D printing, it’s the ability to make a three-dimensional “solid” object from digital design specifications. In other words, 3D printing is really a smart printer that creates objects layer by layer through additive manufacturing or the deposits of materials such as glass, silicon, plastic, resin and ceramic by following a virtual blueprint or animated software.

You may be asking why I’m so positive on its relationship to solar power. Well, that’s easy. Right now there is a huge lack of energy storage, which, coupled with known manufacturing inefficiencies, have damaged solar industry sentiment. Therefore future production of solar cells must be more sustainable. This has me intrigued by the potential 3D printing can have on the solar sector.

Prompt power rallied to five-week highs Friday morning tracking similar highs on the NBP gas market and ahead of low forecast wind generation over the coming week, market sources said.

On the OTC market day-ahead baseload was last heard GBP2.70 higher on day at GBP54/MWh while peakload gained the same value to GBP59.50/MWh midday.

“Gas has really gone North,” a trader said, and added that the N2EX auction for Saturday baseload outturned “excessively high for a Saturday” at GBP55.25/MWh against GBP51/MWh pre-auction on the OTC market.

Friday, 22 February 2013

Whilst 2012 ended on a high for solar power, with a number of innovative new technologies being developed across the globe, there was also plenty to cheer about for commercial electricity providers who rely on wind power. Studies found that the world could meet (and indeed, surpass) it’s energy demands solely using wind power, and that seems to have spurred on some activity right here in the UK energy market.

The Government-backed Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) has hired British root company Blade Dynamics to create record-breaking blades for new off-shore wind turbines.

Last November 21 members of the No Dash For Gas sect of the Church of Climatology organized a sit-in at the West Burton power station in Nottinghamshire, which caused the power station to shut down for 8 days.

The Guardian proclaimed them Green heroes, and posted the usual fawning and sycophantic articles that are reserved only for noble Green activists, in fact today the Guardian has a video produced by No Dash For Gas which shows how to occupy a power station.

It is not easy being Green as the saying goes, it can also be very expensive being Green, as most energy bill payers now know from the real cost of Green renewable energy on their bills.

It is however about to get eye wateringly expensive to be Green if you occupy power stations:

The European Commission has announced that it will refer the UK to the EU Court of Justice over the reduced VAT rate for the supply and installation of energy-saving materials, which includes solar PV and solar thermal modules..

The European Commission states that there is no provision in the VAT Directive to allow a universal application of reduced VAT rate for energy saving materials, and that the UK’s current application of a reduced VAT rate breaks EU law.

The European Commission states that: “Member States themselves unanimously decided on the list of goods and services that could benefit from a reduced VAT rate, and they also insisted that this list be strictly applied, with no room for manoeuvre or interpretation.

Climate change protesters who staged a seven day sit-in at a Nottinghamshire power station claim they are being sued for about £5m by the facility’s owners.

The 21 campaigners from No Dash for Gas admitted aggravated trespass at the West Burton plant at Mansfield Magistrates’ Court, on Wednesday.

EDF Energy confirmed the action and said damages and costs were “in the region” of the figure that is claimed.

The group said some of the campaigners face losing their homes as a result.

A statement on the No Dash for Gas website reads: “EDF has launched a civil claim for damages against the group and associated activists for costs the company claims to have incurred, a figure it puts at £5m.

“Should the claim succeed, several of the campaigners face losing their homes, and all could face bankruptcy or be forced to pay a percentage of their salaries to EDF for decades to come.”

Set up in 2002, the Renewable Obligation or RO places a mandatory requirement on licensed electricity suppliers to source a specified and annually increasing proportion of electricity they supply to customers from eligible renewable sources or pay a financial penalty. The RO is currently the main financial mechanism by which the Government incentivises the deployment of large scale renewable electricity generation and the energy industry regulator Ofgem administers the scheme. By the 1st October each year the annual obligation on electricity suppliers is published and comes into effect for the next financial year starting on the 1st April.

Business Renewable Obligation or RO Charges Explained

Generators of renewable energy have to report the volume of renewable energy that they generate on a monthly basis to the energy regulator Ofgem. In turn Ofgem then issues ROC’s (Renewables Obligation Certificates) to these electricity generators relating to the amount of eligible renewable electricity they generate. In turn the generators then sell their ROC’s to suppliers or traders. This allows them to receive a premium in addition to the wholesale electricity price. These suppliers then present these ROC’s back to Ofgem to demonstrate their compliance with the Renewable Obligation.

Introduced on the 1st April 2010, The Feed in Tariff or FiT scheme is a levy charge imposed by the Government, to fund the Feed in Tariff. The Feed in Tariff was introduced as an incentive paid to businesses and property owners who generate on site renewable energy through small scale renewable electricity generation. This additional levy is collected from all energy consumers who are supplied by eligible FiT suppliers. Each supplier is allocated their share of the overall Feed in Tariff costs in proportion to their supply of market share.

Business Feed in Tariff (FiT) Charges

The energy industry regulator Ofgem charges energy companies a levy and it is from this levy that the tariff payments are made. The cost of the levy is then passed on to energy consumers by the energy companies so in effect everyone who purchases energy pays for this tariff.

The European Union should look beyond 2020 and develop a long-term renewable energy policy, according to the Committee of the Regions (CoR).

With EU Member States committed to ensuring that renewable energy from sources such as waste and biomass constitutes 20 per cent of the entire energy mix by 2020, the CoR called on the European Commission to bring longer term certainty to renewable energy supply. This included the possibility of looking whether the EU could be 100 per cent reliable on renewable energy by 2050.

Polish politician and rapporteur for the CoR on renewable energy Witold Stępień said: “As in the future renewable energy sources will constitute a considerable share of energy consumed by European society, it is crucial to ensure their coordinated development.

“Furthermore, no significant increase in the share of renewable energy sources will be possible unless current support schemes are improved.

“The key elements in the future development of renewable energy sources will involve coordinated subsidy schemes to support investment enabling the operation of a competitive market. Increasing the role of the regions in the distribution of funds allocated to support renewable energy, creation of centres of renewable energy in the regions to allow for the transfer of local know-how.”

The committee laid out proposals to achieve these objectives that would require EU investment and reduction of fossil fuel subsidies. These include:

Iberdrola, through its British subsidiary ScottishPower Renewables (SPR), has received consent from the Scottish Government to construct Kilgallioch wind farm in Scotland.

The project will have an operational capacity of up to 288 MW and will become SPR’s second largest onshore wind project, behind the 539MW Whitelee Windfarm. Comprising a maximum 96 turbines, the Kilgallioch wind farm will see a total investment of over €465mn.

SPR hopes to start construction on the project south of Barhill, Ayrshire county (Scotland), in late 2014, or early 2015, with a view to completion within 24 months. When commissioned, the wind farm will generate enough electricity to meet the annual demands of more than 150,000 homes and prevent the emission to the atmosphere of 1.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, the company says.

Up to 250 construction jobs will be created. “During Kilgallioch’s 25 year operational life there will be opportunities for employment in turbine maintenance and opportunities for local companies to gain new business by providing a wide range of services,” says the firm.

British gas prices edged lower on Friday as the market was oversupplied at the start of trading, while demand levels slipped below seasonal norms on milder weather and weak crude prices weighed on long-term contracts.

“We’ve been firm for a while now, it’s the first time we’ve seen the NBP open long in a few days so that’s triggered some selling,” said one trader at a utility.

The gas market was around 34 million cubic metres per day (mcm/d) oversupplied with help from steady Norwegian imports and a rise in gas received from Belgium, National Grid (LSE: NG.L – news) data showed.

At the same time demand levels were pegged at 5 percent below seasonal averages, adding to bearish pressure on short-term gas prices that are mainly driven by fluctuations in consumption.

Traders said a return to colder weather was expected next week, which may temporarily give another boost to the short-term market, but temperature forecasts for March already showed a milder start to the new month.

John Moore, Managing Director of Windcrop Ltd, has warned that small-scale renewable energy should not be overlooked in attempts to plug the predicted shortfall in the British energy market. In fact, says Mr Moore, small-scale is already making a difference when most of the measures intended to reduce reliance on energy imports are only still in the discussion stage.

Ofgem warned recently that households across the UK should be prepared for a sharp rise in energy bills within two years as the country comes dangerously close to power shortages. This would mean that the UK has to become more reliant on foreign gas imports in order to generate electricity given that EU rules on pollution require the dirtiest power stations to be closed.

“Unfortunately all renewable energy sources seem to have been lumped into one category” said Mr Moore. “Large scale renewable energy, which Mr Buchanan warned has been hit by the financial crisis, is very different from small-scale options. It’s predicted that power station closures could mean a 10 percent fall in capacity by April alone. Finances aside, it takes on average three years to secure planning permission for a large scale turbine, compared to an average of three months for several small wind turbines. These are also quicker, simpler and cheaper to install, and have less impact on the environment. In the last 18 months, we have taken 2.5MW of generation from concept to operation across the East of England.”